BBBBB EEEEEE NN N ISSN 1188-603X
BB B EE NNN N
BBBBB EEEEE NN N N BOTANICAL
BB B EE NN NN ELECTRONIC
BBBBB EEEEEE NN N NEWS
No. 114 October 9, 1995
aceska at freenet.victoria.bc.ca Victoria, B.C.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Dr. A. Ceska, P.O.Box 8546, Victoria, B.C. Canada V8W 3S2
-----------------------------------------------------------
NATIVE PLANT FORUM
A one day workshop is being planned to provide an opportunity to
hear about current programs and initiatives involving use of
native plants in British Columbia.
Where: Vernon, B.C.
When: Saturday, November 25, 1995
Time: 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Cost: The workshop will be free but you will have to pay your
own travel costs.
Proposed agenda:
Morning: Short presentations about native plants by agencies and
individuals.
Afternoon: Workshops on
Native plant biology and seed collection
Native plant propagation and culture
Species uses and programs involving native plants
Formation of a BC Native Plants Council
For information and registration contact:
Diane Gertzen, Nursery and Seed Services Branch, Ministry of
Forests, 14275-96th Ave., Surrey, B.C., V3V 7Z2, Phone: 604-930-
3309, FAX: 604-775-1288
NEW NAMES IN SCAPOSE POPPIES (PAPAVER SECTION MECONELLA)
For his treatment of the genus Papaver for the Flora of North
America, D.F. Murray made one new nomenclatural combination and
validated two names previously published by Randel: Papaver
radicatum subsp. kluanensis (D. Love) D.F. Murray, P. macounii
subsp. discolor (Hulten) Randel ex D.F. Murray, and P. nudicaule
subsp. americanum Randel ex D.F. Murray.
Murray, D.F. 1995. New names in Papaver section Meconella
(Papaveraceae). - Novon 5: 294-295.
LITTLE ICE AGE TEMPERATURE ESTIMATED USING CASSIOPE TETRAGONA
A unique opportunity to study conditions for plant growth at the
onset of glaciation was offered as a retreating glacier at
Ellesmere Island, Canada, revealed well-preserved, subfossil
plants of Cassiope tetragona (that lived between 1485 and 1610
AD). Predictions based on regression between modern plant per-
formance and climatic data from the study site imply that the
mean temperature of the period immediately preceding the glacia-
tion of the area was about 0.7 deg. C lower than today. This
estimate is independently supported by the correlation between
growth and mean July temperature seen today among different
sites. The result supports the idea that the pre-Little Ice Age
plants were killed suddenly by permanent snow embedment and not
by the glacial movements or temperature limitations.
Havstrom, M. T.V. Callaghan, S. Jonasson, & J. Svoboda. 1995.
Little Ice Age temperature estimated by growth and flower-
ing differences bewteen subfossil and extant shoots of
Cassiope tetragona, an arctic heather.
Functional Ecology 9: 650-654.
NEW BRYONET-L DISCUSSION LIST
From: Janice M. Glime <jmglime at mtu.edu>
I have been encouraged by Gillis Een to use the old name of
Bryonet-l (note that it is an l as in liverwort, not the number
one) for this list serve for bryologists. My intention was to
join the bryophyte ecologists and provide a forum for asking
questions and discussion, particularly to benefit all the iso-
lated graduate students and faculty around the world. Of course
all systematists are welcome, and even an occasional systematics
question will be welcome, but my primary purpose was to serve
the other areas of bryology. Non-bryologists who want to ask
bryological questions or to tap into the discussions are welcome
to take advantage of the net. So, Bryonet-l is up and running.
If you want to subscribe:
mail to:
majordomo at mtu.edu
no subject
message:
subscribe bryonet-l
Do not include your email address. Majordomo will take it from
your mail. You should get a message back telling you about the
bryonet-l and how to unsubscribe.
Address of the owner: Janice M. Glime, Department of Biological
Sciences, Michigan Technological University, Houghton, MI 49931-
1295
e-mail: jmglime at mtu.edu, phone: 906-487-2546, FAX 906-487-3167
PLANTS OF THE WESTERN BOREAL FOREST & ASPEN PARKLAND
Johnson, D., L. Kershaw, A. MacKinnon & J. Pojar. 1995. Plants
of the western boreal forest and aspen parkland. Lone Pine
Publishing and Canadian Forest Service, Edmonton. 392 p. ISBN 1-
55105-058-7 [softcover] CDN$24.95, US$19.95
The book includes more than 800 colour photographs and about 900
line drawings of plants from the boreal zone. It covers the area
from Alaska, Yukon, British Columbia to western Ontario.
The book is the third in the series of very popular field guides
[cf. BEN # 31 and BEN # 76]. When I opened the book I got an
impression that the authors ignored botanical literature of the
last thirty years, because the nomenclature and taxonomy of
vascular plants seemed rather rusty and obsolete. I found the
explanation of this in the Introduction - Plant Names: "Scien-
tific names largely follow Scoggan (1978-1979) for vascular
plants, ... " The authors even had the nerves to write "The bog
orchids, for example, are placed in the genus Habenaria [mostly
a tropical genus - AC] in this book, while other works may refer
to this genus as Platanthera [a circumpolar genus - AC]." In my
review of the "Coastal Plants..." [BEN # 76] I pointed out that
the complexity of taxonomy and nomenclature was too much
simplified with the phrase "Also known as ..." In this volume,
"Also called ..." often refers to a correct, commonly accepted
scientific name (e.g., "Also called Orthilia secunda"). I am
sorry to say that the choice of Scoggan's Flora of Canada as a
standard reference for scientific names was a grave mistake.
I like and admire the format of these field guides. The content
is presented in fresh way, combining colour photographs and text
with keys, line drawings, tree and leaf silhouettes, etc. I
missed the comparison tables in this volume. One interesting
feature has been added: 175 small colour photographs of
"wildflowers" that enable users to identify the family and send
them to a proper section of the guide.
The publisher has a toll-free phone number: 1-800-661-9017 and a
toll-free FAX number: 1-800-424-7173.
NATIVE WILDFLOWERS OF CALIFORNIA - CD-ROM
From: Brother Eric Vogel <evogel at stmarys-ca.edu>
Brother Alfred Brousseau F.S.C. (1908-1988) made a collection of
35mm color slides of Native Wildflowers of California which
consists of over 20,000 slides of over 2,000 species. The object
of this project is to make this material available to all. The
project if a not-for-profit one and asks for a donation to help
defray the production costs.
The first output of this project is in the form of CD-ROM's
containing 2,000 pictures of 665 species of flowers. These
pictures were scanned using a Barneyscan and saved as 8 bit PICT
files for use on the MAC and changed to 8 bit TIFF files for the
DOS version. It is intended to continue this project in the
attempt to make Brother Alfred's complete collection available.
Native Wildflowers of California CD-ROM, containing 2,000 pic-
tures of 665 species of wildflowers, indexed and classified is
now available for IBM compatible machines (as well as for Macin-
tosh) Since this is not-for profit project, we are asking for a
$35.00 donation for each CD. Make checks payable to Brousseau
Project and send them to Brother Eric Vogel, Saint Mary's Col-
lege, POB 5150, Moraga, CA, 94575. Be sure to state which ver-
sion you wish.
RE: COMMON NAMES - FROM OUR MAIL BOX - PART I
From: Terry Taylor c/o Rosemary Taylor <rotaylor at unixg.ubc.ca>
The discussion on the value of common names is interesting. Yes,
I believe mosses and lichens should have common names, but not
necessarily always to the species level. In order to slow the
rate of species loss a much greater appreciation and knowledge
of the natural world must be created than the abysmally low
level that now prevails. The general awareness and value placed
on cryptogams is almost non-existent. However, I am frequently
asked the name for a moss or lichen, and a reply such as rock
tripe or belly button lichen receives a much better reception
than Umbilicaria. The genus or family level is probably close
enough, as anybody wanting more information than this is prob-
ably already using species names. The examples presented against
English names are certainly ludicrous, but many resource
managers also do not identify with Latin names, and these people
make decisions regarding preservation, whether botanists agree
with this or not, so species level English names may be advan-
tageous for forestry and similar inventories. The use of English
names for birds seems to be accepted by professionals, although
there are certainly fewer taxa involved.
From: "Alexej B. Borkovec" <aborkove at CapAccess.org>
More than three cheers to you for your subject article. I am a
biochemist and just a very amateurish botanist who nevertheless
is greatly bothered with these mostly idiotic pseudo-common
names. Thank you very much. Regards, Alexej (Sasha) Borkovec
From: Elisabeth Harmon <EBHarmon at aol.com> [abbrev.]
Your article was forwarded to my list, where I read it with
great amusement and chagrin. For many years my husband, the
grandson of a professor of botany, has refused to use Latin
names. He is totally confused by case. His mother, an avid
horticulturist from birth, always uses botanical Latin. While I
must say that California poppy is a lot easier to say than
*Eschscholtzia californica maritima*, it becomes ridiculous when
you add it to the yellow-one-with-gold-in-the-middle.
The public, American and otherwise, are most strongly influenced
by the media. Unfortunately, I have not heard of any grants to
shows or magazines to teach children Latin or botanical flower
names. Yes, that's where a change would have to start. Databases
with correct spelling would have to become available in the
computers these children have at school. Botanical gardens would
have to use the correct plant names for their children's garden-
ing classes. And someone, would have to get the whole ball
rolling.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Submissions, subscriptions, etc.: aceska at freenet.victoria.bc.ca
BEN is archived on gopher freenet.victoria.bc.ca. The URL is:
gopher://freenet.victoria.bc.ca:70/11/environment/Botany/ben
________________________________________________________________